Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft
- It is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn
- Orbits around Saturn and its moons since 2004
- It has collected and analysed dust coming from beyond our solar system
- Cassini is the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit.
- Has confirmed that a huge sea on Saturn’s moon Titan is composed mostly of pure liquid methane.
- Methane, a compound made of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms, exists as a gas on Earth. It becomes liquid only at -161.5 degrees Celsius.
- Saturn’s great distance from the Sun ensures that gases like methane exist as liquids there.
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It is a joint endeavour of NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI).